Michael Phelps on accomplishing large goals, sales advice for B2B founders, and Airbnb rejection letters

Welcome back to the Z Fellows newsletter! Every Monday we share 3 ideas - to help you build companies, ship products, and create your life's work.

1: Michael Phelps on accomplishing large goals

“When I said I wanted to win eight gold medals, basically half the people in the swimming world thought I was absolutely crazy and that nobody could ever do something like that. But for me, I was somebody who believed in it, and somebody who believed in the process of getting there.

I knew it wasn’t going to happen overnight, like I said before. Every little small thing that we did was a small stepping stone toward even having the chance and the opportunity to do what I did in 2008.

For us, we always said every day is a new challenge. Every day is a day that we can prepare ourselves even more. We called it putting money into the bank, so that at the end of the year, when we had a major international competition, we could withdraw the money we had saved throughout the year.

I’ll be the first one to tell you: there were a lot of days where I did not want to get out of bed. And I guarantee you, if I asked everyone here if they’re excited to get out of bed every single day, and I saw a hand, I’d blatantly call you a liar. We all know that’s far from the truth.

But if you have those small goals—those small things that get you excited when you don’t want to—it makes it better and easier at the end.

If you look at the greats in any walk of life, the greats do things even when they don’t want to. That’s the separation, for me. That’s what I found.”

Source: Michael Phelps - Think Small To Accomplish Big Things

2: Sales advice for founders

Identifying Customer Problems: “The goal is to identify a really narrow burning problem you can automate, then go away and build a narrow wedge product in as little as 48 hours.

Avoiding Overbuilding: “What many founders do, which is a mistake, is try to overbuild a really broad platform before they have any real signal that the customer wants it.”

Defining Success Metrics: “If you’re doing a proof of concept, you need to understand what you’re trying to prove and what the agreed success metrics are.”

Overcoming Customer Objections: “Pilots are a way to convince cautious buyers and overcome objections by proving you can actually deliver the value you claim.”

Securing Financial Commitments: “You need to ask early about their willingness to pay for the full product—it’s better to know sooner if they’re never going to pay.”

Optimizing Pilot Engagement: “Because your product is early, you’re not selling a bug-free experience—you’re selling the founders and the promise that you’ll personally solve the problem.”

Recurring Revenue Contracts: “The pro move is a recurring revenue contract with an opt-out period, so one sales process turns directly into recurring revenue.”

Focusing on Customer Success: “You may need to dedicate as much or more effort to onboarding and customer success as you did to closing the deal.”

Source: The Sales Playbook For Founders | Startup School by Y Combinator

3: Airbnb rejection letters

Source: 7 Rejections by Brian Chesky

Best of The Week

See you next Monday,

- The Z Fellows Team

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